March 19, 2019

Cops in many educated contries (like shown above in a European Capital) cops march with the rainbow and the people are grateful for their services. Are you discriminated for being muslim? Then you know what discrimination feels like and there is no reason to reject decent human beings for their sexuality, religion, skin color...particularly if its something that god has given them. Did god make a mistake??

A Turkish police officer in the eastern city of Van has been suspended from duty because he is gay, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Sunday.

It all started in late 2017, when 34-year-old Metin, who has served in the police for over 10 years, was imprisoned for eight days last year for sexual violence as a result of statements made by his partner while under interrogation.

Metin and his partner were drinking tea in the police canteen when his partner was taken away for questioning. The partner panicked and said that he was a police officer, which led to imprisonment for impersonating an officer and further questioning, according to DW.

"According to the interrogation transcript, he then told the officers that Metin had forced him to have sex with him, and that he wished to press charges. Metin was subsequently arrested for having perpetrated an act of ‘sexual violence’ against his partner," the website said.

Due to a lack of evidence, Metin was not indicted. He was put on leave, then re-assigned to the northern city of Zonguldak.

But in 2018, a disciplinary committee ruled to suspend him from duty, justifying that "a civil servant can be suspended if he or she is in an unnatural relationship with another person", defining a same-sex relationship as unnatural.

Turkey's LGBT community has long been subjected to state harassment and widespread discrimination. Turkish officials have described homosexuality as “a disease” and rejected proposals for legal protections for LBGT citizens. Homophobic comments from prominent government officials are rather frequent.

Turkey: Being gay could cost you your job | DW | 17.03.2019

A Turkish police officer who identifies as homosexual (gay) has been suspended from duty in the city of Van. He was in the force for over 10 years. DW details his ordeal.

November 20, 2017

Gay rights activists have criticised what they say is the heavy-handed approach of the Turkish authorities towards them
The Turkish capital Ankara has banned all gay festivals, screenings, forums, and exhibitions on security grounds.

The governor's office said on Sunday that it also wanted to protect public order and sensitivities.

Homosexuality is legal in Turkey but activists say homophobia is rampant.

["From Saturday] 18 November until further notice, all film and theatre events, screenings, panels, colloquium, exhibitions, etc... have been banned," the city administration said on its website.

It argues that such functions in Ankara and its surrounding province are likely to "provoke reactions within certain segments" of society and are also at risk of being targeted by The announcement is likely to increase concern among gay activists in Turkey that their rights are being curtailed under the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which is rooted in conservative Islam.

Gay activists say they have been subjected to various forms of discrimination including harassment, abuse, and rape.

The popular annual gay pride rally in Istanbul has been blocked for three years by the authorities, who cited security concerns. In 2003 Turkey became the first Muslim majority country to allow a gay pride march.

The perceived erosion of civil liberties in Turkey has caused concern in the West following the failed military coup of July 2016. More than 50,000 people have been jailed since then, many accused of having links to the plotters. About 150,000 people mostly working for the government have been sacked or suspended.

In a statement announcing the German film ban last week, the office of Ankara Governor Mehmet Kılıclar said the festival's content "could incite grudges and enmity toward a part of society".

Intelligence suggested that "terror organizations" were seeking "to attack dissident groups or individuals" and that the screening "could have been provocative".

October 12, 2017

Erdogan, better known as the Thug of Europe with some saying that Turkey should have never been allowed to join Europe, NATO or any agreement with the West because of their past behavior including a massacre.

One could judge the man and show he does not have a single hair of diplomacy in him when his thugs beat American demonstrators a few months ago. He doesn't allow demonstrations in Turkey so He must've thought neither do the US. Not much intelligence there and less intelligence in attacking websites trying to disrupt the traffic to the web. Again he doesn't know those particular attacks does not affect all sites and particularly sites that don't sell anything. I know about his attacks because he has been attacking this site for months after we called him a thug immediately after the beating of American demonstrators.

He does no damage to us and our intelligence services get to see their MO on web attacks. We feel honored when people no matter who they are, showing everyone what they were called was fair because that's what they are.

Turkey no longer recognizes the US ambassador to Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday, toughening his rhetoric amid a worsening row with the United States, sparked by the arrest of a US consulate employee.

“We do not recognize him as the representative of the United States of America in Turkey, I say this quite openly,” Erdogan said about John Bass during a news conference while on a trip to Serbia.

“We did not start this problem,” Erdogan said, accusing the US of being responsible for the sharp deterioration in relations.

It was an escalation from the day before when the Turkish leader had only expressed sadness over the row.

We do not recognize him as the representative of the United States of America in Turkey, I say this quite openly TURKISH PRESIDENT RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN ON US AMBASSADOR JOHN BASS. (???)

On Sunday, the US stopped offering non-immigrant visa services in Turkey, citing security concerns. Hours later, Turkish missions in the US took a similar step and also froze US passport holders out of an electronic visa system.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US decision was coordinated with the White House.

The Turkish president said that if the suspension of visa services was decided at the top levels in Washington, then Ankara has nothing more to discuss with the US

Nauert also said the State Department is disappointed by the arrest last week of a Turkish employee of the US consulate in Istanbul.

Allowing the employee access to a lawyer “would be a good start to reduce tension,” Nauert said.

The employee is the second US staff member arrested this year, while a third employee is being sought for questioning while his family members are being held in custody.

Erdogan implied “agents” had infiltrated the US consulate in Istanbul, saying: “All this shows us that something is going on in the consulate in Istanbul.”

The president’s words appeared to undercut earlier efforts by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim to work towards a resolution.

“I hope that this tension will end soon,” Yildirim told members of the ruling Islamic-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP), noting that citizens of both countries were being disadvantaged by the visa freeze.

“We started a legal process against some people who work at the American missions,” said the prime minister. “So what?”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Erdogan refuses to recognize US envoy

August 20, 2017

Germany issued a travel alert for Turkey on Thursday, citing “heightened danger” after the arrest of a German human rights campaigner in Istanbul and marking the latest in a string of incidents that have pushed tensions between Berlin and Ankara close to breaking point.

Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel voiced scathing criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a press conference, saying Ankara had “abandoned the ground of European values” by jailing “innocent visitors to their country on outrageous charges.” Gabriel added he believed that Turkey had also abandoned NATO’s common values.

Gabriel’s comments followed the arrest on July 5 of Peter Steudtner, a human rights activist from Berlin whom Turkish authorities accuse of supporting a terrorist organization. Steudtner was participating in a workshop with Amnesty International in Istanbul when he was taken into custody.

The minister also announced a wider shift in German-Turkish relations, saying the Turkish president had time and again shown he was not interested in engaging in dialogue. “It takes two to tango,” he said, adding “we can’t go on as before.”

Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries struck a similar tone in a statement emailed to POLITICO. “We are experiencing a nadir in German-Turkish economic relations,” she said.

Zypries said that she would “discuss with our European partners how to proceed. This applies to questions of economic aid for Turkey or the further development of the customs union [with the EU].”

Germany has so far trodden softly in its disputes with Ankara, although it remains unclear if Berlin’s approach has achieved its intended goals. Following Turkey’s decision to ban German parliamentarians from visiting an airbase in Incirlik, Germany decided in June to withdraw its troops.

Germany’s stance has been driven, at least in part, by a desire to avoid derailing the refugee deal struck last year with Erdoğan, under which Turkish authorities stop refugees from traveling into Europe and in return European governments provide funding to the government in Ankara.

“Time and again we showed great patience, when there were accusations which at times are unbearable for German ears” — Sigmar Gabriel

But Gabriel said things had changed. He said the arrest of a German human rights activist proved that “anybody can be affected” by random arrests.

“We therefore have to redefine our policy on Turkey,” said Gabriel, who said this was also the view of Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat challenger in September’s parliamentary election, Martin Schulz.

Gabriel said “enhanced alerts” that had so far been in place for certain professions — such as journalists — that could face danger in Turkey would now be extended to all German citizens. The website of the foreign ministry was updated to warn all Germans of possible arrests.

“Persons traveling to Turkey for private or business reasons are advised to be more cautious and to register, even for short stays, on the crisis list of German consulates,” the ministry said.‘We have been disappointed’

Two additional measures that the German government will now discuss on top of the travel alert, according to Gabriel, are a suspension of credit guarantees for businesses that invest in Turkey, and a possible cutting of EU pre-accession aid promised to Turkey as part of its accession process to the EU.

“One cannot recommend anyone invest in a country where … there are examples of expropriations,” Gabriel said.

The minister, a Social Democrat, also said he personally supported the call of his party leader, Schulz, to freeze negotiations on updating the EU’s customs union with Turkey.

Gabriel suggested that Germany is running out of patience with Turkey. The government had exercised “a lot of patience, even if that was not easy,” when Erdoğan “accused Germany of behaving like Nazi Germany” because it wanted to avoid “tearing down bridges,” he said.

“Time and again we showed great patience, when there were accusations which at times are unbearable for German ears. We held back and did not pay back in kind. Time and again we counted on the hope that sanity would prevail … Time and again, alas, we have been disappointed. Time and again, the next step of escalation was taken,” Gabriel said, adding that “the developments in Turkey are obvious and one has to call a spade a spade.”

Anyone who had fired judges and jailed journalists, Gabriel said, “apparently wants to turn back the wheel of history and dismantle the … foundations of rule of law and democracy in Turkey.”

The incarceration of the 45-year-old Steudtner added to already tense relations between Germany and Turkey. Gabriel interrupted his vacation on Wednesday to summon Turkey’s ambassador. Ankara hit back, saying Germany’s criticism of Steudtner’s arrest was “a direct interference in matters of Turkey’s judiciary,” according to Reuters.

Last week, Ankara surprised Berlin by banning German lawmakers from visiting German soldiers stationed at the NATO airbase in Konya, central Turkey.

German tabloid Bild, citing unnamed sources in the German foreign ministry, characterized the current tension as Erdoğan taking German citizens as “hostages” to force Germany to hand over possible supporters of last year’s failed military coup who have asked for political asylum in Germany.

Spiegel Online on Thursday reported Erdoğan had offered to release German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel in exchange for two former Turkish army generals during a visit by Gabriel in June.

Asked about the reports, Gabriel said he had heard about the offer in the press but had not received any calls or letters over the past weeks offering a swap. “I don’t know of an official offer for an exchange,” he said.

July 3, 2017

In Istanbul — For Mohammed, an Iraqi civil engineer, the cruelest experience of his life was not when his father tortured him for being gay.

It was not when Islamic State extremists took over the 26-year-old’s hometown in northern Iraq, forcing him to flee to Turkey. Or when he says he was almost raped at knife point and later laughed out of a Turkish police station when he tried to report the crime. Nor was it in January, when President Trump first tried — unsuccessfully — to bar refugees from entering America.

As Mohammed tells it, the cruelest blow instead came this past week, when the United States Supreme Court agreed to reinstate Mr. Trump’s 120-day freeze on refugee resettlement.

Tens of thousands of applicants for resettlement in the United States are affected by the freeze, and Mohammed is among the unluckiest: His application has been accepted for months, and he was simply waiting for the American government to give him an arrival date.

“That is the one that destroyed me the most,” he said on Saturday, as he compared the many challenges he has faced in Iraq and Turkey. “I still had some hope before. Now I have none at all.”

Mohammed’s full name and current location are being withheld because of the dangers he faces in Turkey.

He is, ironically, fleeing much of the very extremism that Mr. Trump says he wants to wipe out. Mohammed left Mosul soon after Islamic State militants seized control of the city, when his sister warned him that their father had told the extremist group that he had a gay son.

But Mohammed’s persecution had started much earlier. In 2009, when he was 18, his father, a former officer in the army of Saddam Hussein, caught him during a sexual encounter with male friends. So began half a decade of torture and abuse. As punishment for his sexuality, Mohammed’s father beat him with metal, and sometimes burned him with a hot skewer. His legs and feet still bear the scars.

He was effectively kept under house arrest, allowed out only to complete his engineering degree, and later to work at a local engineering firm. If he was late arriving home, his father would increase the intensity of the beatings. Once, he says, his father punched his head so hard that Mohammed was hospitalized for two days with internal bleeding.

“Torture,” Mohamed said, “was a constant thing.”

With the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, closing in, Mohammed finally decided to escape, taking a bus to Turkey, Iraq’s northern neighbor.

Here, he applied for asylum, beginning a long and often byzantine process during which he was screened by the United Nations refugee agency; the International Catholic Migration Commission, a nongovernmental group that has for decades been involved in the resettlement and vetting of refugees to the United States; and at least three American government agencies, in what United Nations officials have described as the world’s most rigorous refugee-screening system. In the meantime, Mohammed’s life has been neither safe nor stable.

Turkey currently has more non-Palestinian refugees than any other country in the world. But unlike in Western nations, refugees in Turkey are not given the same rights as the indigenous population. The vast majority do not have the right to work, and many resort to exploitative conditions on the black market.

Mohammed found odd factory jobs, but was always paid around half the legal minimum wage and never received the social security payments that Turkish workers get.

His employment was also easily terminated, as he found out late last year, when a factory manager fired him for developing a friendship with a gay colleague, Mohammed said.

That left him almost destitute, with no income to pay for the tiny room he shares with four strangers whom he does not trust. To keep afloat, Mohammed began to sell his clothes, then his camera, then his watch.

In January, after he was finally approved for resettlement in the United States, Mohammed hoped the windfall from hawking his possessions might tide him over until his departure was confirmed. But then Mr. Trump was inaugurated, and confirmation never came. Instead, the president suspended refugee resettlement, a move that was upheld by the Supreme Court decision this past week.

Now Mohammed is thinking of selling his last remaining valuable, his cellphone. He said he was down to his last 20 Turkish lira, less than $6.

With no family to call on for help, he feels afraid and abandoned, and ostracized because of his sexuality. While homosexuality is legal in Turkey, gay people face frequent abuse and discrimination. Istanbul’s pride events have been banned for the past three years, and people trying to march have been tear-gassed and arrested.

One gay Syrian refugee was murdered in a particularly brutal fashion last summer, and Mohammed himself has been subject to abuse. He recalls being spat on for being gay, and was nearly raped at knife point last year before managing to call for help.

When he reported the episode to the police the next morning, “they started laughing at me,” Mohammed recalled. “They said: ‘You’re not a girl so you can’t be raped.’”

Jobless and friendless, Mohammed, who is represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project, a New York-based refugee rights group providing him with pro bono legal assistance, now feels “on the edge between life and death.”

“I’ve been wronged all my life — by my father, by my family, by Iraqi society, by Turkish society,” he said in an interview.

June 26, 2017

A plainclothes police officer kicks an LGBT rights activist as Turkish police enforce a ban imposed on the Pride Parade in Istanbul. An estimated 20 people were detained.

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul has thwarted attempts by organizers to hold a banned Gay Pride march.

The organizers of the annual event had vowed to press ahead despite the ban by the authorities, who had cited threats from far-right groups.

But police briefly fired rubber bullets to disperse the marchers and detained a number of them.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey - unlike in many Muslim nations - but homophobia remains widespread.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling AK Party is rooted in conservative Islam, has denied wanting to impose traditional religious values, saying he is committed to secularism. But he supports Turks' right to express their religion more openly.

He has been accused of growing authoritarianism in recent years.

'Get used to it'

This is the third year in a row that Turkey's largest city has banned the Gay Pride rally.

The BBC's Mark Lowen, in Istanbul, says the heavy police presence stopped people from entering Istiklal Street, where the rally was scheduled to start.

He says that anybody trying to unfurl a rainbow flag or pass police blockades was prevented from doing so.

A plainclothes police officer kicks a member of a group of LGBT rights activists as Turkish police prevent them from going ahead with a gay pride parade on June 25, 2017, in Istanbul, a day after it was banned by the city governor's office.

BULENT KILIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Faced with armed police and water-cannon trucks, the marchers had no chance, our correspondent says.

The Hurriyet newspaper said that at least 10 people had been detained.

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf tweeted that a Dutch cameraman, Bram Janssen, was among those arrested.

Earlier on Sunday, the Gay Pride organizing committee had issued a statement saying: "We are not scared, we are here, we will not change.

"You are scared, you will change and you will get used to it. We are here again to show that we will fight in a determined fashion for our pride."

For more than a decade the event passed off peacefully - tens of thousands used to throng Istiklal street here.

But now, for the third year running, it's been banned, officially because of threats from ultra-nationalist groups, but critics believe that's a convenient scapegoat for a conservative government that doesn't approve of the parade.

Representatives of some European governments were here to support the cause, stressing that Turkey, still a candidate for EU membership, must respect minority rights.

But the criticism is likely to fall on deaf ears among an increasingly conservative government. For long, Turkey was a haven of gay rights in the Middle East. But the Islamist-leaning President Erdogan is accused by critics of molding Turkey in his image and ostracizing the secular, liberal side of the country.

Lara Ozlen, from the organizing committee, told AFP news agency on Saturday: "It is obvious that a peaceful march is part of our constitutional right.

"It's been known for years. Instead of protecting us, to say 'do not march' just because some will be disturbed is undemocratic."

On Sunday, the Dutch consulate in Istanbul unfurled a large rainbow flag in support of the Pride event.

In addition to citing the threats of far-right groups, city officials said they had not received a formal request to hold the march - a claim denied by the organizers.

This year's event also coincides with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the start of the Eid al-Fitr festival.

June 25, 2017

Activists have been painting city walls in rainbow colors ahead of the annual MarchOrganizers of Istanbul's annual Gay Pride march say it will go ahead despite a ban by the authorities of Turkey's largest city.

The event has been called for Sunday evening in the city's Taksim Square.

Authorities banned the march for the third year in a row, citing security concerns after threats from far-right groups.

Homosexuality is not illegal in Turkey - unlike in many Muslim nations - but analysts say homophobia remains widespread in the country.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling AK Party is rooted in conservative Islam, has denied wanting to impose traditional religious values, saying he is committed to secularism. But he supports Turks' right to express their religion more openly.

He has been accused of growing authoritarianism in recent years.

'Undemocratic'

Lara Ozlen from the Gay Pride organizing committee told AFP news agency: "It is obvious that a peaceful march is part of our constitutional right".

"It's been known for years. Instead of protecting us, to say 'do not march' just because some will be disturbed is undemocratic," she added.

Earlier, Istanbul's governor office banned the march, following threats from far-right groups to disrupt the event.

The city officials also said they had not received a formal request to hold the march - a claim denied by the organizers.

April 29, 2017

Plainclothes police officers detain LGBT rights activists as they try to gather for a pride parade, which was banned by the governorship, in Istanbul, Turkey, June 26, 2016.In June, Istanbul police banned LGBT parades after Islamist and nationalist groups threatened that they would not allow "degenerates" to hold events on Turkish soil. Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse a gay rally in defiance of the ban.In International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association report on LGBT rights in 49 European countries says Turkey was number 46 on the list. Rankings are based on how the laws and policies of each country impact the lives of LGBT people

PERSECUTION of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) people in Chechnya and other parts of Eastern Europe has been branded “barbaric” by Newport West MP Paul Flynn.

Reports of LGBT people being arrested or otherwise persecuted in Chechnya, which is formally a republic of Russia, have been widespread, although unconfirmed, for a number of years.

And, speaking during a debate on the issue in Parliament last week, Labour MP Mr Flynn said he was concerned human rights abuses such as this were also taking place elsewhere.

“We entirely support the opposition, which should be worldwide, but we should reflect on the fact that this terrible activity is spreading,” he said.

“One reason for that is the fact that there is now less pressure on countries to improve their human rights, because they do not have the incentive of joining the European Union, which demands high standards.

“We are, sadly, going back to barbaric treatment not just in Chechnya but in many other countries, including Turkey.”

And his party colleague for Torfaen Nick Thomas-Symonds said the Russian government “have been found wanting when it comes to human rights”.

“They need to be constantly reminded that they should honour their international human rights obligations,” he said.

“How can we ensure that other countries are similarly robust in explaining that to the Russian government, not least because those members of the LGBT community in Chechnya must be feeling so insecure at the moment?”

Conservative MP for Rutland and Melton Sir Alan Duncan, who led the debate, replied: “We work through all collective European and other organisations, and, of course, through the United Nations more widely.

“Because we speak frankly, we have had a rather scratchy relationship with the Russians recently.

“But we will not shy away from raising these issues both frankly and forcefully.

“I can assure the honorable gentleman that we will maintain a policy of robust engagement with the Russians, and that it will include matters of this sort.”

March 17, 2017

Croatia and Romania share a similar vision on most European issues, including enlargement and the eastern partnership, according to the countries’ foreign ministers, who met in Bucharest yesterday (14 March). EURACTIV Romania reports.

Croatian minister Davor Ivo Stier and his Romanian counterpart, Teodor Meleșcanu, spoke about further EU enlargement, the future of the bloc and the situation in Ukraine in a meeting in the Romanian capital on Tuesday.

The two foreign affairs chiefs also discussed bilateral cooperation within the framework of the European Union and NATO, as well as their forthcoming stints at the helm of the EU’s rotating presidency.

Romania and Croatia will both hold the presidency for the first time in 2019 and 2020, respectively, as part of the same “trio”, sandwiching Finland, which will hold the presidency for the first time since 2006.

Croatia inches closer to Schengen membership

The European Commission on Wednesday (18 January) proposed the gradual integration of Croatia into the Schengen Information System (SIS), bringing the newest EU member state slightly closer to full membership of the EU borderless area.

Meleșcanu said there is a common interest in “anchoring the region irrevocably and irreversibly on the European path”.

He added that “there is huge potential for further cooperation. Romania and Croatia have similar views on most European issues, especially under the current conditions, as well as the future of the European project itself”.

Moldova and the Ukraine crisis were also on the agenda and Romania’s foreign minister, in agreement with his Croatian colleague, insisted that “the importance and need is for the full implementation of the Minsk agreement”.

Both ministers said they share “views about the eastern partnership and how to bring these countries (closer) to” Europe.

Moldova balks at idea of closer NATO ties

Pro-Russian President of Moldova Igor Dodon yesterday (7 February) warned NATO that the closer ties it seeks with his strategically placed country could undermine its neutrality and threaten its security.

Stier revealed that his visit is the first of a number of trips that will seek to strengthen bilateral ties and he said that the country’s president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, “will visit”.

He added that the two countries’ period holding the rotating presidency will be “challenging” and that “we must support the EU’s enlargement policy”.

Stier also spoke about a number of bilateral agreements including a cooperation agreement and a memorandum of understanding on NATO defence. He also said that there are plans to work together in the Danube port of Constanta.

Nukes Out of Turkey to Romania (last summer of 2016)

Two independent sources told EURACTIV.com that the US has started transferring nuclear weapons stationed in Turkey to Romania, against the background of worsening relations between Washington and Ankara.
According to one of the sources, the transfer has been very challenging in technical and political terms.
“It’s not easy to move 20+ nukes,” said the source, on conditions of anonymity.
According to a recent report by the Simson Center, since the Cold War, some 50 US tactical nuclear weapons have been stationed at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, approximately 100 kilometres from the Syrian border.

Most Americans don’t know this fact but many will be surprised when and if they find out. Turkey has been a bad partner in both NATO with the US and EU with its European partners. This has been traditionally and historically been “Turkey”which has been in a backwards spiral on Human Rights particularly in the LGBT community. EU rules stipulates not only a good human rights record but same sex unions or marriage. On the NATO front again Turkey has been an impediment to NATO needs dealing with the far east and Russia. Many times flights on US or NATO missions had to be rearranged to not enter their airspace because they would not clear them. Same has been on the ground on the fight against ISIS in Syria. On this front they have been Johnny come lately and only because they and no choice being inundated with Syrian refugees and attacks by ISIS on their Eastern front.

It was to be an expected change of NATO nuke policy for some time. Turkey was the partner no body wanted because it could not be counted on but at the time there was no body else that could take its place. Turkey has always acted for Turkey and that is great unless you enter into alliances in which an attack on one is an attack for all. They signed the document but it looked like they looked the other way on those tricky parts of helping each other out in times of difficulty.

The missiles have been there since the Kennedy administration and it always been a sour point with Russia. It was the break of the Soviet Union that has given the West choices though it has antagonized Moscow from one time having these countries serve as satellites of the Soviets to now being surrounded with nations that have missiles pointed at them to stop a Croatian-Georgia like invasion by the Russians with a promised of NATO to come to their help.

Now you can see why Turkey and Russia wanted to have eyes, ears and moving lips in no other place but the Oval office of the White House. What they misjudged with Flynn who was getting money from both the Russians and the Turks, its something the old Soviets were good at and that is secrecy. They went about in an open way for this stuff but Im sure there are other hungry palms that wont think twice to helping out someone who at the moment we are not at war with. Usually the oily field of candidates can be found in the Love America first fellows among others.

December 19, 2016

The Russian ambassador to Ankara was shot in an attack at an art gallery in the Turkish capital on Monday and the Russian RIA news agency said he had died of his wounds.

The Anadolu news agency said the gunman had been "neutralized" soon after the attack, which appeared to mark one of the most serious spillovers of the Syria conflict in Turkey. Relations between Moscow and Ankara have long been fraught over the conflict, the two supporting opposing sides.

Ambassador Andrei Karlov made a speech at the opening of a photographic exhibition. Hurriyet newspaper said Turkish special forces had surrounded the building. NTV said three other people were wounded.

August 23, 2016

The boy was part of a wave of Islamic State attacks on the city of Kirkuk. Kurdish officials apprehended him in a Barcelona Lionel Messi jersey, and said he burst into tears when initially questioned by a security officer.

The video shows Kurdish police carefully holding the boys arms apart as they carefully remove the explosive belt full of shrapnel from underneath his shirt.

Hours before the boy’s arrest, an ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shiite Mosque, wounding three. At the same time, one of the boy’s accomplices blew himself up near a checkpoint, but did not hurt any one else. “There is a dangerous campaign tonight against Kirkuk,” a Kurdish security official told Rudaw news after the arrest.

The boy told Kurdish intelligence officials he was kidnapped by ISIS fighters in Mosul, and that the terrorists had forcibly strapped the bomb to him. Intelligence officials indicated the boy’s story may not have been a ploy to avoid punishment by security forces.

The boy’s arrest came just 24 hours after another ISIS child soldier between the ages of 12 and 14 blew up a bomb at a Kurdish wedding party in Turkey Saturday, killing 50 people and wounding nearly 70. Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan indicated the boy may have been wearing a remotely-controlled suicide belt.

The suicide bombing wave in Kirkuk is likely an attempt to weaken Kurdish resolve as preparations continue for an assault on the city of Mosul. ISIS seized Mosul in 2014, and it is the last major city inside Iraq that it fully controls. The U.S. plan to encircle Mosul, relies heavily on Kurdish Peshmerga forces, who have proven to be the most militarily capable force inside Iraq.

August 22, 2016

A widespread crackdown on dissent is fuelling tension across Turkey, which has seen a rise in hate crimes against minorities – including a recently reported attack against a well-known transgender activist in Istanbul.

Turkey’s Daily Sabah reported that the badly burnt and mutilated body of Hande Kader, a 22-year-old LGBT activist and sex worker, was found on August 8 by the roadside in a residential area of Istanbul.

Although DNA evidence has yet to confirm the remains belong to Kader, the director of a gay rights group said her boyfriend and some friends had positively identified the body.

Emirhan Deniz Çelebi, the director of SPoD, a national LGBT organization based in Istanbul, joined other LGBT associations in condemning what they believe is deliberate silence by the country’s mainstream media in the wake of the activist’s death.

"We are not equal,” he said.

After Kader was arrested during an equal rights rally and faced down police water cannons during last year's Gay Pride parade, she became a symbolic figure in the LGBT community.

“We are being murdered and they do not hear our voices, because the rules in Turkey don't protect us”, said Deniz Çelebi.

Outraged supporters launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of Kader’s death and the plight of the LGBT community in Turkey. On Twitter they shared the hashtag #HandeKaderSesVer (MakeSomeNoiseForHandeKader), while on Change.org a petition was circulated to advocate for better protections for those in the community.

Last Thursday local activists took their cause to the capital, holding a press conference outside the parliament to highlight the daily risks confronting LGBT members.

Kader’s murder comes less than two weeks after the beheading of a gay Syrian refugee whose body was found not far from where Kader was discovered.

Muhammed Wisam Sankari, who had fled war-torn Syria, was found decapitated after being raped and assaulted. He could only be identified by the clothes he was wearing.

Minorities targeted

After last month’s failed coup in which the government instituted a state of emergency, the rights of minorities including gays, women and LGBT members have been whittled away.

While the Turkish capital has been a safe haven for many fleeing persecution and war in neighbouring Syria and Iraq, hate crimes against LGBT people have increased.

“Since the coup-attempt, a number of my transgender friends have called me and talked about how they were discriminated against because of their ID Cards and appearance,” Deniz Çelebi said.

“Actually, LGBT people in Turkey have never had legal rights,” said Pişkin.

“But we knew there were judicial mechanisms to support us. Nowadays, most people feel more vulnerable.”

Shift away from secularism

Although homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey as it is in many other Muslim countries, homophobia remains widespread. Almost 80 percent of Turks believe homosexuality is “morally unacceptable” according to a 2013 study by the US think tank PEW Research Center.

Pişkin said Kader’s death is symptomatic of a country shifting away from secularism.

“An Islamic tendency has gradually been getting stronger,” said Pişkin.

“The government has preferred war over strengthening our democracy. Therefore, our democratic rights and one’s right to life hang by a thread.”

LGBT activists will stage a demonstration on Sunday in Istanbul’s İstiklal Avenue to raise further awareness about Kader's death.

August 8, 2016

Three roommates (flatmates) of a gay Syrian refugee beheaded in a homophobic attack in Turkey last week fear they face a similar fate, after receiving death threats in the days since his murder.

Wisam Sankari, a hospital cleaner, went missing on 25 July after going to meet another gay man in Istanbul. His body was found two days later in a nearby area of Istanbul, his head severed and his battered body only identifiable to his friends by his clothing.

A week on, three of his flatmates say they fear being murdered in the same fashion after receiving warnings that the man Sankari met on 25 July wants to kill them too.

“There have been people in the street and people on the phone, who said: ‘He will get you next,’” said one of Sankari’s friends, a chef who, like his flatmates, asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “There was also a voice message on Facebook.”

In an interview with the Guardian in Sankari’s former room, a cramped lodging he shared with five other people, his friends said he had been in fear during the last months of his life after Turkish officials, UN diplomats and charity workers had proved unable to protect him following a series of homophobic attacks.

A Greek appeals board said in June that it considers Turkey safe enough for gay Syrians to be deported to as part of the controversial EU-Turkey migration deal. But Sankari’s friends say his experiences show how dangerous the country is for gay refugees, and unstable for refugees in general.

They alleged that in the months before his death, Sankari had:

*Been kidnapped and raped in two separate homophobic attacks.

*Been mocked and ignored by police officers after he reported one of the incidents.

*Eventually initiated legal proceedings against his unknown kidnappers after a local NGO helped him find a lawyer.

*Recorded a video in which he expressed fears that he might soon be killed in a homophobic attack.

*Briefly moved to another Turkish city in an unsuccessful attempt to find a safer place to live.

*Been fired from a factory job because of his sexuality.

“Do you call this safe?” summarised a second of Sankari’s flatmates, as they listened to their friend’s favourite song and watched a video made in his honour. “We don’t have an organisation to protect us. We want everyone in Europe to understand our situation here for Syrians, especially gays. We’re suffering.”

This was the third brutal attack Sankari had experienced, the flatmate continued. “Five months ago, he was attacked and his head was cut,” he said. “He went to the police, but they didn’t help him. [Another time] he was put in a car and he had to throw himself from it [to survive].” Then at 12.20am on 25 July, he got a call from a Syrian who had recently arrived in Istanbul. “He went to see him, and he never came back. Two days later we heard he was dead.”

Sankari’s murder was one of at least 20 homophobic attacks on Syrian refugees in the past six months, according to an activist who is documenting such incidents. “Turkey is not a safe place, it’s not a gay-friendly place,” said Hossam, a Syrian who organises a weekly support session for gay refugees in Istanbul, and who asked to be identified only by his first name. “And with the political situation in the country, it’s not getting better.”

More generally, Sankari’s friends said many of his other experiences showed how vulnerable life is for refugees of any sexuality in Turkey.

Despite recent legislative changes, the vast majority of the 2.7 million Syrians in Turkey have no realistic chance of accessing the legal labour market, forcing them to work illegally in exploitative conditions that contravene the UN refugee convention.

Sankari was one such case. His latest employers paid him about half the Turkish minimum wage (600 Turkish lira, or £150) for a hospital cleaning job that saw him work seven days a week. If he complained, he risked being fired; during previous employment as a waiter at a cafe, he was sacked for asking for time off to recover from illness.

“We’re working as animals,” said one of Sankari’s friends, a literature graduate who was a teacher in Syria but now works as a waiter in Turkey. “No one is working at what they studied for. We work here 12-13 hours a day. We don’t have a weekend. The Turks want us to work and work and work – without money or rights.”

Sankari’s battles with Turkish bureaucracy also highlight the basic logistical challenges Syrians face on a daily basis in Turkey. Sankari struggled to access support from aid groups and officials in Istanbul because he had first registered with the Turkish government in Hatay, a city near the country’s southern borders.

To apply for resettlement in the west, or to secure even basic support from government-affiliated NGOs, Sankari needed to return to Hatay. But he was scared to do so because of threats he had faced while briefly living there, said Hossam, who had met Sankari at his weekly drop-in session.

“He was desperately seeking help but he couldn’t reach anyone,” said Hossam.

It is a depressingly familiar situation, the activist added. “During my time with the group, I’ve witnessed a lot of serious threats, a lot of hate crimes, people who have experienced incidents that didn’t necessarily end their life, but [involved] beatings, rape and abuse,” said Hossam. “And those people couldn’t reach places where they felt safe and secure. They had to deal with this on their own.”

A senior government official said: “We are unable to independently verify the claim that the victim’s plea for assistance was ignored by law enforcement. Obviously, this barbaric attack doesn’t reflect the way Syrian refugees are treated in Turkey, which is the largest host of refugees in the world. We are investigating this incident and will take all necessary steps to bring perpetrators to justice.”

In a statement, the UN refugee agency said it was working to resettle LGBTI refugees currently living in Turkey, and expressed sadness about Sankari’s death. A spokesperson added: “We are very sorry and we would like to express our shock and sadness at this appalling crime. We are looking forward to seeing that investigation of the case by the officials concluded asap and perpetrators are brought to justice.

“Syrian refugees in Turkey are given temporary protection by the government of Turkey, which is primarily responsible for their protection in the country. UNHCR does not register or document Syrian refugees in Turkey.”

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